Watergate`s Finally Over

February 17, 1985

Thirteen years of Watergate have proven enough. The Nixon 1972 Campaign Liquidation Trust, the last surviving vestige of the infamous Committee for the Reelection of the President (CREEP) is closing out its books with just $20,000 in the bank, which is to be turned over to the Republican National Committee. The trust once amounted to $4 million.

Much of money went to the Democratic Party in a settlement over the June, 1972, break-in of its headquarters in Washington`s Watergate office complex. This was probably paid with gritted teeth, given the enormous boon Watergate proved to be for the Democrats in the 1974 and 1976 elections.

The rest went largely as compensation for legal expenses of Watergate figures not convicted of crimes. Anthony Ulasewicz, the former New York detective turned CREEP bagman who wasn`t even carried on the payroll when the scandal broke, actually got $22,180 in back pay.

Former Sen. George McGovern, probably the most anguished critic of Watergate, has turned out to be hurt by it twice. The scandal produced all manner of election reform laws--some workable, others not--and established the Federal Election Commission as an omnipresent regulatory force in American politics. The FEC has just ruled that Mr. McGovern must repay the government $25,000 in public campaign funds he received for his quixotic 1984

presidential run, including a $13,549 bill for the public share of the $50,000 ``salary`` he drew as his campaign`s candidate. Mr. McGovern now calls the FEC ``miserable`` and ``nitpicking.``

Viewing Mr. McGovern`s plight in light of the riches made by such notorious Watergate figures G. Gordon Liddy, John Ehrlichman and John Dean from books, movies and TV appearances, it is hard to draw a proper moral

--except to say that scandal is what you make of it, and reform is a dog that bites without the slightest sense of loyalty.